Minnesota Campus Compact

Minnesota Campus Compact supports civic engagement and democratic renewal through its diverse network of colleges and universities. It is our vision that every student in Minnesota experiences service-learning or civic engagement and graduates with a determination to contribute to the public good, and every college and university in Minnesota is fully engaged with its communities, working together to educate citizens, solve problems, and build a strong democracy. Read More

• About Us
  Minnesota Campus Compact is a small, dynamic nonprofit organization that works with all types of colleges and universities to promote community engagement that contributes to students’ learning and advances healthy, just, democratic communities. We host workshops, events, and conferences focused on community-engagement in education and research; share tools and resources; spotlight impactful community engagement through awards and storytelling; and support work across the state through the Cultural Agility Collaboration, College Health Corps AmeriCorps VISTA program, and College Access & Success Participatory Action Research initiatives.
• Our Impact
  For more than 20 years, Minnesota Campus Compact (MNCC) has been the state's leading advocate for civic engagement within higher education, working with approximately 35 campuses across the state. We believe that health care disparities and low levels of health literacy threaten the full economic and civic participation of all people. So strong is this belief, that we developed the College Health Corps AmeriCorps VISTA program to increase higher education's participation in partnerships to improve health care and wellness access in low-income communities and populations. Higher education institutions have relevant assets that can be mobilized, creating short and long term benefits through immediate services as well as training future professionals. One of MNCC's distinctive strengths is the breadth of our connections not only across institutional types but also across disciplines, which allow us to engage people from the health fields and other areas with much to offer -- languages, education, marketing, and so on. Since the program began in 2009, a total of 59 CHC VISTA members hosted at community clinics, nonprofits, and campuses have engaged 8,997 volunteers in 109,365 hours of service, resulting in over 68,560 low-income individuals with improved access to health services and 62,730 participating in health education activities, and 45,164 participating in upstream and preventative health activities. VISTA activities included opening a Health Commons aimed at providing free services and programming in an underserved Somali community, opening a dental teaching clinic for advanced dental therapy students to provide free or reduced dental care to uninsured individuals, and increasing the community outreach and health programming of a community health clinic through creating the systems and infrastructure for a volunteer program.